Untapped waste: Old technology sees new development in Southwest China

It may not look like much, but this developing waste management system may help communities deal with food and human waste, power public transportation and generate energy, all while lowering disease transmission rates. Biogas has faced a bumpy road so far and more challenges await, but the team of a startup project based in Southwest China thinks that now is the time to develop biogas on a commercial scale.

This piece is the first of a three-part series on China’s natural gas development and the trans-Pacific liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade. Part 2 is here.

“I think if you’re going to be working on environmental issues, you need to have a cursory understanding of every region of the world”

This is the ambition of Nick Clarke, a Luce Scholar working at a biogas startup in Kunming, Southwest China. When I meet him in late September, the confident, clean-cut 26 year old is in his third month of Chinese language study and his second week of contract meetings with local suppliers and clients. The drive behind the project is an American organization called RIPE energy. The startup is using the project as a pilot to establish and test their model of community-oriented biogas commercialization, which they say will “reduce emissions while generating…organic fertilizer, energy and capital.”

Biogas is methane collected from air-free digestion of natural waste. The technology has myriad social, environmental and public health benefits: biogas emits one-third the CO2 equivalent of conventional methane reserves (natural gas) in China, where fracking is uncommon, and it provides a way of hygienically repurposing human and animal waste, giving it the potential to significantly reduce the spread of disease in developing areas. Despite its advantages, though, it has until recently been unable to compete commercially with more conventional sources.

Historically, and especially in the context of a world fracking boom, biogas initiatives have been stymied by high labor and maintenance costs. But China’s relative lack of conventional methane reserves has driven high prices and made other methane sources viable. In the 1970s 7 million household-scale biogas reactors spread across the country after their inclusion in the National Economy Program. By 2007 their total had grown to 28 million. More recently, the state gas company’s plans to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) have sparked international controversy.

A mural at the Chengdu Urban Rivers Association AnLong Eco-Village Project. Most household reactors use human and animal waste as starting material. The first reactors in China were installed in the 1920s, and have since had a central role in reducing the amount of food and human waste fed to pigs, thereby slowing the spread of disease.

Despite playing a significant role in rural household heating and cooking, biogas has never spread through Chinese markets. According to the pilot study completed last year by RIPE energy co-founder and CEO Ben Underwood, biogas is on the cusp of commercial viability in China. Partnering with Yunnan Normal University Biogas Engineering Research Center and using food waste from seven local universities, project leaders aim to soon begin supplying compressed natural gas to the city’s bus system and selling fertilizer (the process’ only byproduct) to local farmers. Under current government subsidies, their biogas is also competitive in the energy generation market.

The dining hall of a university in Kunming. The food waste of 200,000 people will be collected daily from seven local universities, as starting material for the production of biogas and fertilizer. Food waste provides three times the energy per unit as human or animal waste. Photo Credit: Ben Underwood

As biogas technology continues to grow into more conventional energy markets and the markets themselves adjust to the reality of climate change, biogas may present an increasingly attractive alternative to conventional sources. China, long acquainted with the technology, lacking in natural gas reserves, and in search of low-pollution energy sources, may be the perfect market to foster yet another clean energy industry.

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fqwatkins

Hi, I'm Forrest. I grew up in Eugene, OR and went to Whitman College, where I studied Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology and Spanish. I loved my time in school (and will probably love it again at some point), but right now it is time for something else. So I am embarking to realize my ever-expanding dream of biking around the world to document the effects of climate change and how everyday people are responding.
For more on the project, check out: http://360bybike.com/the-plan-cycling/
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